Dr. Sarah M. Pike
Department of Religious Studies
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0740
530-898-6341
CURRENT POSITIONS
Professor. Department of Religious Studies, California State University, Chico
Director. California State University, Chico Humanities Center
EDUCATION
Ph. D., (with distinction) Religious Studies, Indiana University (Ph. D. minor, Women's Studies), 1998
M. A., Religious Studies, Indiana University, 1989
B. A., cum laude, Religion, Duke University, 1983
COURSES TAUGHT
Religion in America, Introduction to Religious Studies, American Indian Worldviews, Religion, Nature and Environmentalism, Gender, Family and God, Religion and Animals, Pilgrimage and Sacred Space, Violence in American Religious History, Religion and America's Ethnic Minorities, Women and Religion, "Cults" and New Religions, The End of the World.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books:
New Age and Neopagan Religions in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and The Search for Community. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.
Articles and Book Chapters:
“Religion and Youth Culture” in Children and Religion: A Methods Handbook, edited by Susan B. Ridgely. New York: New York University Press. Forthcoming 2011.
“Performing Grief in Formal and Informal Rituals at the Burning Man Festival,” in: Weinhold, J. & Samuel G. (eds.) "The Varieties of Ritual Experience," in Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual. Volume II - Body, Performance,
Agency and Experience, ed. by Axel Michaels et al. Wiesbaden,
Germany: Harrassowitz. Forthcoming 2010.
“Dark Teens and Born-Again Martyrs: Captivity Narratives After Columbine,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2009, 77: 647-672.
“Why Prince Charles Instead of ‘Princess Mononoke?’: A Response to The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2009, 77(1): 66-72.
“Religion” in Key Words in the Study of Media and Religion, edited by David Morgan. New York: Routledge, 2008.
“The Pentacle Quest: ReligiousFreedom and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs” in the American Academy of Religion’s Religious Studies News, Spring 2007.
“Men and Women in New Religious Movements: Constructing Alternative Gender Roles” in Teaching New Religious Movements, edited by David G. Bromley. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
“No Novenas for the Dead: Ritual Action and Communal Memory at the Temple of Tears,” in Afterburn: Reflections on Burning Man, edited by Lee Gilmore and Mark Van Proyen. University of New Mexico Press, 2005.
“Gleanings from the Field: Leftover Tales of Grief and Desire” in Researching Paganisms, edited by Jenny Blain, Doug Ezzy and Graham Harvey. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2004.
“Online and In Person at the Library of Congress,” in the American Academy of Religion’s Religious Studies News, Winter 2004.
"Desert Goddesses and Apocalyptic Art: Making Sacred Space at the Burning Man Festival" in God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture, edited by Katherine McCarthy and Eric Mazur. New York: Routledge, Inc., 2001.
“A Perspective From Religious Studies” in Bioethics Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Winter 1997).
“Forging Magical Selves: Gendered Bodies and Ritual Fires at Neo-Pagan Festivals” in Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, edited by James R. Lewis. Albany: NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.
“Rationalizing the Margins: A Review of Legitimation and Ethnographic Practice in Scholarly Research on Neo-Paganism” in Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, edited by James R. Lewis. Albany: NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.
Book Reviews:
Review of the Handbook of Contemporary Paganism. Edited by James R. Lewis and Murphy Pizza (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009) in Nova Religio, forthcoming 2010.
Review of Teenage Witches: Magical Youth and the Search for Self. By Helen A. Berger and Douglas Ezzy (Rutgers University Press, 2007) in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2008, 76(3): 703-705.
Review of Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), American Anthropologist, 2008.
Review of Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America, by Sabina Magliocco (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Spring 2006.
Review of Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America, by Gary Laderman (Oxford University Press, 2003) in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, December 2005.
Review of The New Religious Movements Experience in America. By Eugene V. Gallagher (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004) for The Journal of Religion, 2006.
Review of Darren Kemp, New Age: A Guide (Edinburgh University Press, 2004) for Religion, 2005.
Review of Belief Beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age, edited by Joanne Pearson (Milton Keynes, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2002), in the Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, 2004.
Review of Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld, by Susan Greenwood (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2000), in Culture and Religion (Fall 2002).
Review of Ecofeminism As Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern by Ariel Salleh (London: Zed Books, 1997) in Nova Religio (Fall 1998).
Review of AIDs As an Apocalyptic Metaphor in North America, by Susan Palmer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), in Nova Religio (Summer 1998)
Review of Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism, by Bron Taylor in The Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence (Summer 1998).
Review of Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, eds. Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996), in the Journal of American Folklore (Spring 1997).
Review of The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in Nineteenth-Century America (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), in Religious Studies Review (Summer 1995)
Encyclopedia entries:
“Wicca” in World Book Encyclopedia Online, 2008.
“Amulets,” "Palmistry," and "Fortunetelling" in the World Book Encyclopedia, 2006.
“Burning Man” and “Pagan Festivals” in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, edited by Bron Taylor and Jeffrey Kaplan. Continuum International, 2005.
“Neopaganism” and “Neopagan Rites of Passage” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition. New York: Macmillan, 2004.
“New Age” in the Encyclopedia of Religion and American Culture, edited by Gary Laderman and Luis Leon. Santa Barbara and Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2002.
“Neopaganism” in The Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, 2nd edition, edited by Samuel S. Hill and Charles H. Lippy. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2001.
"Apocalypticism," “Psychic” and “Dowsing” in The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Religion, edited by Wade Clark Roof. New York: Macmillan, 2000.
PRESENTATIONS
Invited talks:
“Conversations with the Dead: Mourning Rites at the Burning Man Festival” for the Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (April 2010)
“Conversations with the Dead: Mourning Rites at the Burning Man Festival,” “The Religious Studies Annual Lecture,” University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas (April 2010)
”Teenage Spirituality and the Natural World” for the Council on Spiritual and Ethical Education in Chapel Hill, NC (April 2008)
“Gender and Satanic Possession: From Salem to School Shootings” at York University, Toronto, Canada for the Graduate Programme in Women’s Studies (April 2006)
“Burning Man’s Postmodern Rites of Passage: Beyond Traditional Belief” at the University of Nevada, Reno for the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice (November 2003)
“Ethnographic research and Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves,” at Princeton University (January 2002)
“Sacred Space and Apocalyptic Art at the Burning Man Festival” for the Religious Studies Department at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, November 1999.
“Blood That Matters: Neo-Pagan Borrowers and Native American Others,” Humanities Lecture Series, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT (Spring 1997)
Conference Presentations:
Panelist, “The Denial of Ritual” for the Ritual Studies Group, American Academy of Religion 2009 Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada.
“Self-Identity Across Festival Boundaries,” for the “Workshop on Festivals,” University of Oslo, October 2009.
Panelist, “Unlikely Companions in Sacred Realms: Crisis, Poïesis and Transformative Appropriations of Sacred Objects and Spaces in New Religious Movements” at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion and the Psychological Anthropological Society joint meeting in Asilomar, CA, 2009.
“Slamdancing for God: Religious Punk Rock Politics and Media Representation” at the Global Seminar on Religion and Media, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2008.
“Corporate Youth Culture and the Gods of Nature,” Plenary address at the Conference on Media, Religion and Culture in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2008.
“Performing Grief in Formal and Informal Rituals at the Burning Man Festival” at the conference on Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual in Heidelberg, Germany, 2008.
Presenter and session organizer, “Trees and Their Humans” at the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 2008 in Morelia, Mexico.
Panelist, “Roundtable on The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature” at the American Academy of Religion 2007 Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
“’Liberation’s Crusade Has Begun:’ Hare Krishna Hardcore Youth and Animal Rights Activism,” at the American Academy of Religion 2007 Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
“From Tree Huggers to Terrorists: Childhood Religious Experience and Radical Environmentalism” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion 2006 Annual Meeting in Portland, OR.
Presenter and Moderator, “Nature and Religion in Childhood: a Roundtable” at the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 2006 Annual Meeting in Gainesville, FL.
Respondent, “Neo-Pagan Religions in Central and Eastern Europe” at the American Academy of Religion 2005 Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Presenter, Forum on Religion in U. S. Prisons at the American Academy of Religion 2004 Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas.
Respondent, “Untold or Silenced Knowledge? Ethnographies on Neo-Pagan Goddess Spiritualities and the Academy” at the American Academy of Religion 2004 Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas.
Respondent and Presider. “Violating America: Murder and Identity in Modern U. S. Culture and Fiction” at the American Studies Association, 2003 Annual Meeting, Hartford, CT.
“No Novenas For the Dead: Public Rites of Mourning and the Burning Man Festival” in a panel session on “Ritual, Representation and Media in Public” at the American Academy of Religion 2002 Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada
“Spirituality in American Teenagers” at the 2002 Religious Studies in Secondary Education conference in Toronto, Canada
“After Columbine: Demonic Teens on the Internet, God's Martyrs in the Headlines,” in the Religion and Popular Culture Group at the American Academy of Religion, 2001 Annual Meeting, Denver, CO
"Dark Spaces of Consumption: Adolescents and Religion on the Internet," in a session on "Scapes of Technology, Techniques of Space" at the American Anthropological Association, 2000 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA
"Infected By the Devil and Consumed By Darkness: Images of Adolescents in Contemporary America" in a session on "Suffering Childhood in America" at the American Studies Association, 2000 Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI
Invited panel member, Lilly Endowment Consultation on Children and Religion, Sessions Two and Three, Indianapolis, IN (March and May 2000)
"Sacred Time and Virtual Space at the Burning Man Festival" in a session on "Constructing Identity and Community in Time and Cyberspace" at the American Anthropological Association, 1999 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL
“Children of the Devil or Gifted in Magic? The Work of Memory in Neopagan Narrative” for the Nature Religions Scholars Network, American Academy of Religion, 1999 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
“Dark Teens and the Academic Study of Adolescence” presented at the Lilly Endowment Consultation on Children and Religion, Session One, Indianapolis, IN, October 1999.
“Sacred Space and Apocalyptic Art at the Burning Man Festival” for the Religious Studies Department at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, November 1999.
Organized and presided over panel, "'Nature Religion' as a Theoretical Construct, " joint session of the New Religious Movements Group and the Comparative Religion Section, American Academy of Religion, 1998 Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL.
“Blood That Matters: Neo-Pagan Borrowers and Native American Others” presented in the New Religious Movements Group, American Academy of Religion, 1995 Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
"Forging Magical Selves: Gendered Bodies and Ritual Fires at Neo-Pagan Festivals" presented in the New Religious Movements Group, American Academy of Religion, 1993 Annual Meeting, Washington D. C.
"Reinventing the Female Body: 'Sex Magic' in Contemporary Goddess Religion" presented in the Gender and Religion Section, American Folklore Society, 1992 Annual Meeting, Jacksonville, Florida.
"'Like Lambs to the Slaughter:' Christian Fundamentalism, New Age Religion and the Purity of Children" presented in the North American Religion Section, American Academy of Religion, 1992 Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
GUEST LECTURES AND CAMPUS-WIDE PANELS AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, CHICO
“Memorialization in the U. S.” for the CSU, Chico Humanities Center’s theme, “Memory, Nostalgia, Ruins” (April 2010)
“Corporate Youth Culture and the Gods of Nature,” Department of Religious Studies Public Lecture Series (2008)
“’Liberation’s Crusade Has Begun:’ Hare Krishna Hardcore Youth and Animal Rights Activism,” Department of Religious Studies Public Lecture Series (2007)
“Youth Culture in the United States Today” for the Associated Students Professional Development Committee Staff Workshop (Spring 2004)
“Burning Man and Leisure” for Sarah Richardson’s Parks and Recreation class (Spring 2004)
“No Novenas for the Dead: Burning Man’s Postmodern Rites of Passage” for the Anthropology Forum (Spring 2004)
“Tolkien and Contemporary Paganism” for RS 144, “Religious Dimensions of Literature” (Fall 2003)
Keynote speaker for the California State University, Chico Student Affairs Council “Pause” conference on “Here Come the Millennials” (2002)
Panel member, Center for Applied and Professional Ethics Forum on “Evil” (Spring 2002)
Panel member, Environmental Affairs Council panel on “Religion and the Environment” (April 2001)
Moderator for “Religions of the Great Basin,” for the Anthropology Forum (Spring 2001)
“After Columbine: Christian Martyrs in the Headlines, Demonic Teens on the Internet” for the Anthropology Forum (Fall 2001)
“Contemporary Religious Festivals” for RS 10, “Introduction to Religious Studies” (Spring 2000)
"Contemporary Paganism" for Multicultural and Gender Studies 198, "Research Seminar" (Fall 1999)
“Contemporary Paganism” for Anthropology 40, “Magic, Witchcraft and Religion” (Spring 1998)
“Education and American Indians” for RS 210, “Teaching About Religions in American Public Schools” (Spring 1998)
“Playing With the Female Body: Art, Eroticism and Religion,” California State University, Chico Women’s Center conference, “Women’s Lives: Past, Present, and Future” (Spring 1998)